David:-
My understanding is:-
The software was supplied by Thales Information Systems.
Day to day processing of NOTAM is carried out by AIS at Heathrow. AIS know all about NOTAM but do not have the knowledge or ability to deal with technical issues such as managing the delivery systems or maintaining the hardware. For this they are reliant on NATS.
Most of my contacts have been with Phil Bate, Manager UK AIS, and his staff. They have been very open, helpful and informative, but cannot speak at a technical level with regard to the delivery system.
As Russell has said, we have passed on our proposals to Thales IS and I know that they are monitoring the feedback in the forums. However they decline to enter into discussion with us because it would breach the confidentiality of their contract with NATS. I fully respect that position.
The person introduced to Russell as the Project Manager for the IT side is Alan Burrill of NATS Airport Services. Unfortunately Alan will not communicate with us on a technical level either. I understand that Alan does not have the AIS website as his primary responsibility.
To be fair to AIS, Phil Bate has been away from his office since our suggestions were delivered and has therefore not been in a position to respond. He should be back in the next day or so.
The lack of engagement on a technical level does worry me and I have passed my concerns on to John Gentleman, Manager Aeronautical Charts and Data at DAP and also to Phil Roberts, Assistant Director Airspace Policy 1 also at DAP. Contact details for both of these gentlemen are published by the CAA in CAP 723 (Directory Guide) which can be found at
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP723.pdf
I have also passed my concerns on to Roger Budgen, Head ATO Customer & External Relations at NATS. He is listed, together with his contact details in the NATS Operations Contact Guide for Customers which can be found at
http://www.nats.co.uk/operational/Op...il%2020021.pdf
The worry is that we have had no technical feedback at all from NATS. No questions have been asked about our suggestions and no-one has said whether they might be technically flawed, easy, or difficult. All of which leaves us wondering whether the meeting on the 15th will result in any action or merely a thank you and an assurance that our proposals will be borne in mind for the future development of the site.
We do have a couple of weeks left before the meeting and now that Phil is back I hope we will see some signs of movement towards an action plan. It will be a very poor result indeed if three months after the site went live we are still left in limbo.
Hope this answers your question.
Mike